Suffering Fan

My favourite Takarazuka top star (Aran Kei) is currently in a show called ‘The Red and the Black’, which is playing for a week in Osaka, and I desperately wanted to go. I called for tickets the day that they went on sale to the general public and by the time I got through the tickets were already entirely sold out for every day in the Osaka run. Though I struck out there, my friends and I decided to see if we could get same-day tickets one of the days, and decided to go on a day when there were two shows, so that if we didn’t get the tickets for the first one we’d be in line for the second. Unfortunately, the theatre was not selling same-day tickets, so my friend and I decided that plan C would be to go to Osaka and hang around outside the theatre looking for scalpers. We got to the theatre extremely early, and were actually able to see some of the actresses coming in to get ready. The excitement of this was somewhat lessened by the fact that it was pouring rain and cold. At one point, while walking around to see where scalpers might be hiding, we saw a group of people waiting near to the stage door, and assumed that they must be waiting for the top star, because from that direction she could conceivably arrive by car. The woman standing next to us gave us some strange looks, but we ignored her. Finally, the people upstream of us started clapping and bowing, which we assumed meant that a star was approaching. We were, however, a little surprised when, instead of a fashionable Japanese woman in sunglasses, we saw a small group of middle-aged men come around the corner. These were the top actors for the show going on in the *other* theatre in the area, who looked at us two foreign women a little strangely, wondering perhaps how we had become such big fans of theirs. We waited and looked around until the doors closed and saw not a single scalper for the show we wanted. Having struck out entirely and soaked our shoes through, we decided to get some lunch and look around the area until closer to the second show of the day. I wasn’t aware, but there is actually a big antique book strip mall near Umeda station that has a great variety of things, including, as we discovered, old Takarazuka periodicals and programs. Neither of us escaped unscathed. We went back to the theatre to see if there were any scalpers this time, and were greeted with a large crowd of people, none of whom where selling their tickets. In the end we just decided to get some coffee nearby and head home. I only hope that I get back to Japan before Aran Kei retires, because I’d really like to see her again.
-Scalping is not necessarily illegal, from what I can tell, but there doesn’t seem to be much of it.
-When my boots get too wet they dye my feet black on the bottom.
-Apparently I need to enunciate better, because I asked the woman at the coffee shop for hot tea and wound up with a cappuccino.
-I used to laugh at the idea of famous people wearing sunglasses to hide who they were while out in public, since I thought that there was no way that that would be sufficient. However, it was actually really hard to tell whether I saw Aran Kei enter the theatre or not, because everyone was wearing sunglasses and hats and were essentially identical.
-I think that all of the tickets were bought up by the fan clubs before they even started selling to the rest of us.